It is often difficult, if not impossible, for individuals confined to a bed to utilize conventional bathtubs and/or sinks to bathe or wash themselves. These individuals may be bed-ridden for various reasons, such as surgery, age, or disease. Many of these individuals are non-ambulatory and cannot be moved. Being confined to a bed also affects the patient when a patient desires simply for their hair to be washed without a complete bath. Typically, a patient has only two choices available for washing their hair. The first is to move the patient to a stationary sink over which the patient may lean to have their hair washed. However, this may be difficult due to the patient's physical condition or the physical demands made on the assistant. The other choice is to move the patient over to, and place them into, a conventional bathtub. However, attempting to wash a patient's hair in a conventional bathtub is both uncomfortable to the patient and ineffective due to the body position of the patient when disposed in a conventional bathtub. Additionally, the use of a bathtub poses serious safety concerns to the patient and unnecessary physical demands on the assistant.
Therefore, it is often the practice of hospitals, convalescent homes and nursing homes to rely on portable, inflatable wash basins, which have been suggested in the prior art. One such inflatable wash basin of the prior art is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. D293,364 and includes a rectangular tubular wall section, which is inflatable to form the periphery of the basin. A heat sealable floor panel is connected to the lower periphery of the tubular wall section to define the water-tight basin. The tubular wall section includes an opening for accessing the interior cavity of the basin. The basin may be filled with water from a suitable water source, forming a reservoir for washing the patient's hair.
While the aforementioned prior art wash basin works well in its present application, the prior art wash basin suffers from several deficiencies. One such deficiency is the lack of head support for the patient during the washing process. In order to use the prior art wash basin, the patient either has to hold their head up, if at all possible, causing discomfort and strain to the patient, or the assistant must lift and hold the patient's head with one hand while attempting to shampoo the patient's hair with the other hand. Another such deficiency is the lack of a shut-off valve in the drain outlet so that the assistant may either stop or release the water from the basin conveniently, depending on the situation, without leaving the patient unattended. The prior art wash basin requires a clamp that surrounds the drain hose. The clamp is squeezed tightly in order to stop the flow of water, which is awkward to use and requires significant strength. Additionally, the clamp is susceptible to breaking if “over-clamped,” making the wash basin unusable. Finally, the wash basin is susceptible to tearing when the neck opening is forced open to accommodate the head region of the patient. In one construction method of the prior art basin, the ends of the neck opening between the upper and lower tubular members is constructed with a straight-line heat seal, thereby acting like a zipper capable of tearing a hole in the wash basin when the neck opening is forced open.